


1 Corinthians 13:13

by Pheonixhat



Category: Warrior Nun (TV)
Genre: Christianity, F/F, Female Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Mutual Pining, Post-Season/Series 01, Religious Discussion, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, Slow Burn, Threats of Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-07-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:01:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25291327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pheonixhat/pseuds/Pheonixhat
Summary: My take on post-season 1. Will be a slow burn, with some plot, but also lots of character stuff for all the group (however Ava and Beatrice and their relationship will take centre stage).Corinthians 13:13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love...
Relationships: Sister Beatrice/Ava Silva
Comments: 17
Kudos: 176





	1 Corinthians 13:13

_Before I had first died I had always imagined death to be a quiet inevitability. Just like everything else in my life at that time I would be powerless to stop it, and it would just wash over me, and I would be gone. No more useless Ava._

  
_Everything was different now of course, including the way I imagine I’ll finally die, from which there would be no coming back, no cheating death. Violence, something which I had only grown all to acquainted with up close over the last few weeks since this all began, is now the only way I can imagine my life-ending. No more dreaming of a long rest with no waking up, instead all that is left for me in my future is my ending being defined by blood and pain, with the best option left for me that I would die knowing that I am protecting people I care about._

  
_A strange sense of calm washed over me in that moment of realisation, the like of which I had only ever felt once before. I found a deep acceptance of this. After all, was it not better to die on your own terms and potentially do something to help those you care for than alone and powerlessly in your own bed? No this was far better._

  
_With her new resolve and a deep understanding of what she needed to do, Ava stood up and calmly launched herself with all her body and power, at Adriel._

*

It was a slow dawning of consciousness. The first thing that lazily sparked its way across her synapses was that she was comfortable and safe, and that was enough of a realisation to drag her back down into a deep sleep again.

  
Sometime later, or perhaps no time at all (that side of her brain was still refusing to be useful at the moment), she became aware of several more things. She was lying down, and there was a comfortable weight of some sort of blanket upon her and pillow underhead. But more importantly, could hear humming quietly beside her, and the occasional sound of the gentle turning of pages in a book. The image came easily to her then, and she could see the room of the orphanage where she was laying, and next to her was a nun that she couldn’t at this moment name. The nun was reading, keeping her company. She felt a wave of contentment wash over her. But it did not last.

  
The image didn’t work for some reason, something was wrong. It was like looking at the memory of a dream when you wake up, and realise that it was all a bunch of nonsense your brain seems to just throw together at random. She immediately felt a wave of exhaustion wash over her at attempting to figure out what was wrong with the mental picture in her head, and she briefly contemplated trying to open her eyes and just settle it, but even doing that felt like a monumental level of activity that she couldn’t seem to find the energy to do. She felt herself slipping back into some sort of sleep, the last thought in her head was that the humming was nice…

*

Pain. Tearing, slashing gnawing pain washed through her and all she could see was a shadow shaped like a demon before her, it seemed to sallow the blinding light that was all around as if it was sucking it in, and she couldn’t look away as dread filled her. Behind her, she could hear someone screaming her name, despite the increasingly loud pounding in her ears. And yet she could not tear her eyes away from the yawning abyss before her. It almost felt like it was staring back, and reaching out for her, trying to suck her in. The light started to dim and shrink before the growing darkness, and for a moment Ava was afraid, _this was it_ , she thought.  
But something in the background noise seemed to tug at her very core and she felt the beginnings of something well up inside her, small but strong. No, she seemed to shout yet also make no noise with her voice, _I. Will. Live._ And with these words that seemed to ring out of her, the light shone brighter than before, and for a brief moment seemed to overcome the darkness before her.

*

Ava sat up gasping, her heart pounding like she was running a marathon. She found herself falling in an attempt to leave the bed as quickly as she could, everything in her screaming to get out, get out now. She had to run, and get everyone else out too, she needed to save them, it was coming and it was _hungry_.  
She registered that someone was speaking near her, but her brain was so panicked she couldn’t seem to process the words properly. Something touched her as she was struggling to pull off the sheets that seemed to have tangled in her legs, and she flinched away. She could hear whimpering now, and with a start, realised it was herself making the noise.  
“Why can’t I leave, let me go, please,” Ava forced herself to try and say, though it came out more mumbled and weak than she’d like. She found herself discovering just how thirsty she was, and already she felt exhaustion wash over her.

  
“Please, calm yourself Ava, you are safe I promise you.” Ava recognised the voice now, it was Beatrice, and immediately Ava stopped fighting to get away and calmed her movements, if not her breathing just yet. She turned to where Beatrice was and saw her sat on an uncomfortable-looking chair with a book in her lap. Beatrice’s hands were out as if she wanted to touch her, and she had her usual serious look on her face. However, Ava had in the short, but intense, time that she had got to know Sister Beatrice, learned to read her well. She could see the concern and worry deep in her eyes. “Breath,” Beatrice said, calmly and commandingly, “Breathe in. Breathe out. That’s it.”

  
Ava found herself copying the breath of the woman opposite her, and felt her racing heart finally calm, the memory (or nightmare?) from before starting to finally bleed away from her waking moment.  
Beatrice’s hands fell back to rest on her lap over the book, and Ava had a moment where she felt the urge to reach out to them, to her, and draw her in. But she didn’t give in to the impulse. There was a perfectly still moment, as Ava and Beatrice regarded each other fully and a gentle silence enveloped them, and they breathed together.

  
“Your hurt,” Ava blurted out, breaking the silence, as her eyes roved over Beatrice’s face and the cuts and bruises she could see there, yellow and scabbed as signs of healing but still painful looking. Beatrice huffed with almost laughter, as she looked down and away from Ava momentarily before her eyes seemed to be magnetically dragged back to Ava, a fond smile on her face.  
“Your one to talk,” Beatrice’s face grew serious and grave, “you really scared me Ava I thought… We thought we’d lost you.”  
Ava felt mildly embarrassed at the intense gaze from Beatrice and tore her gaze from her to look around the room she was in. She was most definitely not in her orphanage room, as her dream had led her to believe, instead, the room was airy with plenty of light coming in from a bay window opposite. The door was shut, and out the window, could see some trees and some sort of rural landscape unfamiliar to her stretching off into the distance, but not much else.

  
“So. What happened then?” Ava asked, looking down now at her hand in her lap. No signs of any scratch or bruising, unblemished, undoubtedly thanks to the Halo. She could tell she must have been out of it for some time though, the damage she had endured, and the energy she’d have consumed must have been intense.  
“What do you remember?” Beatrice asked in a steady voice. Ava swallowed heavily, reminding herself that she really needed a drink but she pushed that aside for now.  
“Er, I remember everything going to shit but, yeah not much honestly. How long has it been?”  
“You mean how long has it been since you died, again?” Beatrice's voice hitched slightly, and she got up from her seat, pacing over to the window in an uncommon display of restlessness. “Three days Ava, you’ve been unconscious for three days.”

  
“Wait,” Ava said sitting up straighter, using the wall behind her to help her stay upright and not give in to the need to rest on the bed some more. Why was she so exhausted? “Wait, I died? What are you on about?”  
Beatrice turned back to Ava, her hands clutching the book to her body, and the sun coming in the window behind her seemed to frame her in a glowing halo. A bit heavy-handed as metaphors go, Ava thought to herself, but appropriate in Beatrice’s case.

  
“Yes. You stopped breathing Ava, I... '' Beatrice steadied herself with a deep breath, before continuing with a degree of sternness in her voice. “We managed to get you… Your body out, after you ‘solar flared’ at Adriel,” the quotes around ‘solar flared’ were as loud in the inflexion as if Beatrice had done air quote movements with her hands. “But you were dead Ava, gone. No breathing, no heartbeat, nothing.”  
Ava felt like her stomach had dropped away from her at the anguish in Beatrice’s voice. With a steady breath and a brief closing of her eyes, Beatrice continued, her eyes looking anywhere but directly at Ava.  
“Whatever it was you did must have really hurt him, or scared him, or something... because Adriel fled, as did any other resistance. We didn’t hang around though, we knew we’d need to… need to take the Halo out of you and pass it on, and we didn’t know when he might come back looking for us.”

  
Beatrice’s eyes moved back to Ava as she paused, taking her in. Ava felt laid bare under her gaze but did not shy away from it this time. She felt truly awful for the distress she had caused Beatrice, caused them all possibly.  
Beatrice continued the last part of the story, “We got in a van and drove, and drove. We were near the Swiss Alps, heading to one of our safe houses we have here, we figured it’d be safe enough as Father Vincent doesn't know of it to our knowledge.” Her face twisted in a flash of uncharacteristic anger when she said his name, “And suddenly, just like that, and with a brief flare of light from the Halo, you started breathing again, like it was nothing.” Beatrice's voice became slightly shaky with emotion again.

  
Ava felt the air rush out of her, as she became uniquely aware of every breath she took in a way she never had before. Her mind was racing trying to take in and understand everything Beatrice had told her. How many times can she die, and come back again? She latched onto one piece of information she could deal with right now, “So, we’re in the Alps?” Ava asked.

  
Beatrice nodded, “Yes, for the moment.” Another one of the fond smiles appeared on her face as she regarded Ava, “I know how it was one of the places you’d always wanted to come.”  
“Too right I do!” Ava exclaimed, but then immediately regretted it, wincing at how the rise in volume tore at her parched throat slightly. “Actually before that, I think I could really do with a drink and some food.”  
“Yes of course! I should have sorted that for you sooner.” Beatrice jumped to her feet, leaving the book behind on the chair, and easing into the efficient nature she often projected as she rushed to the door. She paused as the door was half open and half-turned back to Ava, “I really am glad you're not, you know, dead. Please don’t do that again though.”

  
And with that she was gone, the door once again shut.

  
Ava found herself smiling for no reason, she had just died (again!) and here she was, smiling like an idiot. Maybe she was an idiot, a tired idiot. She should just rest a bit, no harm in waiting for Beatrice lying down after all…  
And Ava once again slept.

**Author's Note:**

> I just couldn't get them (and the show in general!) out of my head, don't know why, so I wrote this. I hope someone else enjoys it, I at least had fun writing it so far. Apologies it's short, I was going to add to it, but it's getting late and I was really excited to get it out there.
> 
> Apologies for any typos or mistakes, I don't have a beta reader (I'm open to having one if there are any volunteers!). I have this a bit planed out, but also plan on taking it as it comes. Honestly not sure how long it'll be at the moment, but I'm aiming for a decent length. Any criticism welcome!


End file.
